Denver firm Marcus and Millichap Real Estate Investment Services has included Clock Tower Square and the adjacent Xanadu condominiums, at the base of Steamboat Ski Area, in an online real estate auction that began at 11 a.m. Tuesday and was to continue until 11 a.m. Wednesday.

Steamboat Springs  Clock Tower Square and Xanadu condominiums attracted a high bid of $4.08 million in an online auction that ended at 11 a.m. Wednesday, an amount that fell sort of the reserve price, according to the auctioneers.

As recently as 2009, investors held out hope they might someday develop 201 luxury condominiums and 49,000 square feet of commercial space in The St. Cloud redevelopment on a site at the entrance to Ski Time Square near the base of Steam­boat Ski Area.

Jamie Temple, of Steamboat Springs, and Colgate Holmes offered the property at $15 million in 2009 but stated a preference for identifying a joint venture partner.

Two business entities paid a combined $5.85 million for Clock Tower Square and Xanadu in spring 2006.

Denver-based Mile High Banks foreclosed on the developer late in winter 2009 and listed the property with Marcus and Millichap Real Estate Investment, which supervised the online auction this week.

The Steamboat property was among 60 bank-owned properties and debt offerings auctioned separately in one event.

Steamboat Realtor Chris Wit­­­­­te­­myer, who owns one of six residential condominiums on the upper level of the Clock Tower building, said it wouldn’t necessarily be the case that a new owner of the parcel would seek to tear down the existing buildings as Temple and Holmes intended.

“There are three pieces of land in there — two of about 1 acre and another that’s about 0.75 acres that could be developed” independently of one another, Wittemyer said. “I think there’s a lot of value in there.”

A large parking lot on the west side of the Clock Tower comprises about an acre, as does the Xanadu site, Wittemyer said.

The smaller parcel was the site of an octagonal retail building that was previously torn down.

A buyer holding the entire parcel for redevelopment would someday have to come to terms with the condo owners before they could tear down the Clock Tower, Wittemyer said.

He has listed one of the three-bedroom, three-bath con­­domin­iums at Clock Tower for sale at $795,000.

Bidders in this week’s auction were identified only by code names, and the reserve price was withheld. It’s not unusual for real estate auctions to be the first step in an eventual sale, serving to identify interested buyers.

A call to Marcus and Milli­chap Real Estate Investment was not returned Wednesday.

Wittemyer said he was not among the bidders in the 24-hour auction that stretched from 11 a.m. Tuesday to 11 a.m. Wednesday.

The opening bid of $3.8 million, the auctioneer’s minimum, came shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday, and a second bidder jumped it to $4.03 million.

A third bidder added on the minimum increment of $25,000 before the first bidder came back with the final bid of $4.08 million just after 9 a.m. Wednesday.